SOD Warlords - Voice Acting! *Updated 11/01/2012*

[Daedelus_McGee]

If you are recording in an echoey room the best way to get rid of it is to put yourself and you mic under a heavy sheet/cover. That's not a joke.
I recorded an entire audio book under a sheet to get rid of the echo of the room we were using and it worked brilliantly.

Thank you for the suggestion.  Most of my professional acoustic work was done with heavy military electronics and naval engineering and I neglected to nick a few convenient square meters of anechoic coating when I had the chance.  Take heed of your fleeting opportunities, the things you will someday want will be unobtainable without a professional diver's rig.

I do know a bit about field expedient soundproofing, and I'll try to dig up some eggcrate foam from someplace now that I realize I have the need. Rigging a rapidly deployable version of that for my own use might take some effort, but where I have time on my hands, I have the freedom to do a bit of modification.

I was also thinking about trying some recording other places with some partially filled 5-gallon buckets to see what effects could be created practically.  The right kinds of reverb are amazing.

 

[Computica]

Aye, very nice Daedelus, I use audio cleaning software to remove static but if you want to give a crack at it Atardecer please feel free to do so. I can send you the collected voices we have.

 

[Sirbab]

Hey no Problem Daedelous, it would be a tad silly to have only one voice per faction, if we could get at least 2 per faction..... that would be amazing. Keep up the good work guys!

 

[Computica]

...if we could get at least 2 per faction.....

That's the plan. 

 

[Sirbab]

Ok, I finished a set of Maranian Voices, i realized i did them all in MP3 AFTER i finished i hope they are still usable.  http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G1LPFAZ3

 

[Computica]

Sweet, yes I'll still be able to use them.

 

[Atardecer]

Im a sound engineer/designer by trade. I can balance the files appropriately if needed. I have an ftp site. I notice that alot of mods have distorted, poorly balanced vocal lines and sound FX and it can be a bit offputting. Hell I might even just have a go at voicing myself

Jim

Jim,

You are a pearl beyond price.  Nothing sounds worse than bad sound.  It takes people out of the mode, because we're so spoiled with the professional audio we hear in movies and TV.  I'll dig my shotgun mike out of storage and put some tracks together. 

What format do you want to receive audio in? 
What freeware do you recommend to capture it? 

Update: I've recorded 60 tracks from the duel selection, 30 as a fop noble, the other 30 for the Khergits. I'm less than in love with the location I did the recordings in, but I'm fairly happy with some of the phrasing. I took some small liberties text with about six of the tracks, in large part because I find it difficult to imagine steppe nomad warlords with a clear grasp of the concept of "douchebag".
http://www.mediafire.com/?mxv29aqbagd7il2

Best that you work with the highest quality files throughout the process and then convert and dither in the final processing. Generally, 24-bit 44.1k is fine for this sort of thing. I use iZotope RX Advanced to clean up sounds - not cheap but does a great job of getting rid of hiss, disortion and mic pops. Getting rid of unwanted room reverb in a natural way is probably one of the hardest things to do mixing wise. Not much you can do really - if you gate it it ends up just sounding weird. Often best to add an artificial ambience over the top to smooth things out. I always find it kinda cool tom also pitch some vocals down a little bit - gives them more balls and menace

Starting back at work next week so will be pretty busy but hopefully have some time to look into things

 

[Daedelus_McGee]

Best that you work with the highest quality files throughout the process and then convert and dither in the final processing. Generally, 24-bit 44.1k is fine for this sort of thing. I use iZotope RX Advanced to clean up sounds - not cheap but does a great job of getting rid of hiss, disortion and mic pops. Getting rid of unwanted room reverb in a natural way is probably one of the hardest things to do mixing wise. Not much you can do really - if you gate it it ends up just sounding weird. Often best to add an artificial ambience over the top to smooth things out. I always find it kinda cool tom also pitch some vocals down a little bit - gives them more balls and menace

Starting back at work next week so will be pretty busy but hopefully have some time to look into things

I'll see if I can visit a horse ranch next week or the paddocks at the local track to get some background ambient to mix in.

Actually, it would be good to have a list of sound effects that would go into a battlefield or court situation. While I'm sure that there are standard effects recordings available, it would be a lot more cool to have SoD:W branded sound tracks as advertisement that other mods could use.
I have some sword-like objects I can record clashing against each other, and I might be able to scare up something like an authentic shield. (Dent my actual swords to make sound effects?  Not only no, but [naughty words] no!)

 

[Computica]

Atardecer when I have the next few batches of voice sets I'll send you all of the voices we've collected.

 

[Juve]

Just curious: are y'all still in need of voice actors?

 

[Computica]

Yes, the more voices the better.

 

[Necrontyr1800]

I can do voicing if still needed, been helping with some in an oblivion mod (LOTR Based) And i do video reviews and gameplays
http://www.youtube.com/user/necrontyr1800?feature=mhee

 

[MorrisB]

UPDATE:

It was decided that we should expand the native battlecry files so soldiers would yell more than "RAAAGGGHH !" all the time.

These generic battlecries are separated to female/male lines and are now listed in the first post. 

 

[Computica]

Sweet!

 

[DaElf]

This is me doing the Villianese Command Lines: http://www.mediafire.com/?89mwee6u6olw53e

Please let me know if this is any good (I realise it's not Celtic).

Also, a couple of attempts at the Male Generic Battlecries:

http://www.mediafire.com/?d1ec740vmujk45q
and
http://www.mediafire.com/?b4kmkce81wslh8m

Feedback is appreciated for all three.

(I'd be happy to do more once my voice has recovered from that last recording *splutters* xD)

 

[Computica]

Thanks DaElf; These are good, I just have to clean the audio to make your voice more clear. Then I'll be able to put them in-game.

EDIT:
The 2nd take on the generic was scary  I'm not sure if I could use that but I'll try to use it somewhere.

 

[DaElf]

Thanks DaElf; These are good, I just have to clean the audio to make your voice more clear. Then I'll be able to put them in-game.

EDIT:
The 2nd take on the generic was scary  I'm not sure if I could use that but I'll try to use it somewhere.

Thanks; glad I could help

Haha, good luck

 

[Bombzero]

hmm.. well i have a quality computer mic, and can change my voice a good bit.
If i manage to work out my current issues with your mod ill be glad to help out.

 

[Dreadlord267]

I want to make contribution to the mot but first i want to clearify something before i do recording blindly. The official factions/religions lore claims that Zerrikanian Sultanate's best RL equivalent would be Ottomans with Kievian Rus. So i want to ask that a Turkish accent would be enought to give it a shot? but if you want russian or arabic accents that would be WAY above me 

 

[Computica]

I want to make contribution to the mot but first i want to clearify something before i do recording blindly. The official factions/religions lore claims that Zerrikanian Sultanate's best RL equivalent would be Ottomans with Kievian Rus. So i want to ask that a Turkish accent would be enought to give it a shot? but if you want russian or arabic accents that would be WAY above me 

Well, I would rather you speak in a voice that is easy to understand and doesn't make people giggle when they hear it.